It's never too early to start the Final Report

Those who know me will think I'm like some sort of stuck record with my constant "have you started your final report yet?" enquiry.


All I'm trying to do is to stop you falling into the single biggest problem I've seen with major projects over the years, and that's starting the final report too late.

(Reader's Voice) "Why? Surely it's a final report so it goes best at the end?"


I suppose there is some logic to that. The name for a start - it's often called a 'final' report, so it does sound like it's the last thing to be done. Also, it needs to summarise all the work you have done, so surely you need to finish all that work first?


(Voice of Doom): "Ok - sure - go ahead, and do it in the last couple of weeks."

So let's see what happens when we follow the Voice of Doom. (All these points are taken from real projects, just the names have changed).


Jim has been working on his project for 5 months now. He's just started the report with 10 days to go before the final deadline. It's meant to be 80 pages long so surely that's only about 8 pages a day. Trouble is Jim struggles to write a single page on the first day. He just can't remember any details about how he did his design about 4 months ago. Panic sets in. It gets worse day by day he ends up handing in a short report lacking in detail or analysis.


Jenny has been writing quite well for 8 days and there are just 2 days to go. She emails her supervisor urgently requesting him to proofread her report. Her supervisor says "Sorry no! I'm away at a conference and I've been offering to look at the report for the last several months". Jenny struggles to finish the report, and hands it in without any idea of what the supervisor thinks of it. She asks her friends to proofread it for her. Everyone says "No, I am too busy with my report and exams". Sadly it is submitted full of errors and omissions.


Jeremy started his report with 2 weeks to go, and all seemed to be going well at first. He had no idea that he was going to feel so tired, and that there were all these parties at the end of term, and the concert that he's performing in would take up so much time and attention, or that his computer would fail so awfully and that this would not count as mitigating circumstances because his work should have been backed up. It's actually turned into one of the worst two weeks of his life, and he hands it in completely exhausted yet 2 days late, immediately losing 20% off the single biggest assignment he'll ever do.


John is avoiding his 2 friends who have finished their reports and handed in early, and who are wandering around in "smug mode" enjoying the end of term and the lovely weather. He is stuck in his room with 4 days to go and a horrible case of writer's block. He just wanted to finish his work - how can that have been bad?. So he worked on his computer code to try and get rid of all the errors and to add all those extra features. Now he's just looked at the marking scheme and has seen that although the code is important it's the report that takes most of the marks. He suddenly feels cheated and stupid. Worst still there are still bugs in his code and the extra features are unfinished and he only has a book of scribbled notes and 15 pages of his report.

(No offence intended to anyone with a name beginning with J - there's no implication that you'll be late starting your report).

But when should you start then?

It's never too early to start the final report!


So start now. I'd recommend the following:

• Draft a Contents page and talk it through with your supervisor
• Plan carefully when you're going to write each chapter (ideally as close as possible to the work that it covers).
• Put writing slots in your diary and keep to them with the same commitment that you'd give to a private meeting with another person.

Or, you might choose instead to listen to the Voice of Doom. 🙂